JERUSALEM: The remains of an Israeli soldier killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the Gaza war have been recovered and returned to his family, the Israeli army said Wednesday.
In an overnight operation “a fallen (Israel Defense Forces) soldier who was abducted on October 7th and held hostage in the Gaza Strip was rescued and returned to the State of Israel,” an army statement said.
“At the request of his family, his name will not be published. We send our deepest condolences to the family and will continue to accompany them.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the soldier “fell in a heroic battle” and that “the heart of the entire nation grieves over the terrible loss.”
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the return of the soldier’s remains offered “important closure” for the family, but demanded a negotiated deal to release those still held captive in Gaza since October 7.
“We must not be misled — the remaining hostages don’t have the luxury of waiting for rescue operations,” the group said in a statement.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The Palestinian militants also abducted 251 people, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the military says are dead.
On Tuesday the Israeli army announced that one hostage, a 52-year-old Israeli Bedouin man, had been rescued from a Gaza tunnel.
On Wednesday, as he left a medical center, the rescued man, Kaid Farhan Alkadi, said international mediators needed to secure a ceasefire.
“Those in Qatar and Egypt need to put an end to this. They travel and return to the negotiations, this is a waste of fuel,” he said.
“You have to sit together until white smoke comes out and be done with it.”
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,534 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
“My joy is not complete because I know that there are other hostages here and there, it doesn’t matter if he is Arab or Jewish,” Alkadi said.
“There is a family waiting for him and they want to be happy, so I hope and pray that there will be an end to this thing.”
Israeli soldier’s remains returned from Gaza: army
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Israeli soldier’s remains returned from Gaza: army
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the soldier “fell in a heroic battle” and that “the heart of the entire nation grieves over the terrible loss”
Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera West Bank office, order 45-day closure
- Israel’s military has repeatedly accused journalists from the Qatari network of being “terrorist” allies of Hamas
JERUSALEM: Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera said that Israeli forces raided its office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order.
“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief Walid Al-Omari, the network reported, citing the conversation which was broadcast live.
“I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” the soldier said.
Footage showed heavily armed and masked troops entering the office.
The broadcaster said the soldiers did not provide a reason for the closure order.
The move was the latest Israeli action against Al Jazeera.
Last week Israel’s government announced it was revoking the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country, four months after banning the channel from operating inside Israel.
The shutdown had not affected broadcasts from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, from which Al Jazeera still covers Israel’s war with Palestinian militants.
The Israeli military has repeatedly accused journalists from the Qatari network of being “terrorist agents” in Gaza affiliated with Hamas or its ally, Islamic Jihad.
Al Jazeera denies the Israeli government’s accusations and claims that Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah says it targeted Ramat David Airbase with dozens of missiles
CAIRO: Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli Ramat David Airbase with dozens of missiles in response to what it described as “repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon,” the group posted on its Telegram channel early on Sunday morning.
ALPS Group urges Sudan’s warring parties to open all famine-stricken areas to relief operations
- In a statement, the group urged both Sudan's army and its rival RSF to allow relief efforts “to reach the heartland of the crisis and contain the famine"
- It also urged the paramilitary RSF “to refrain from any attacks targeting civilians” and the Sudan Armed Forces “to stop its widespread aerial bombardments”
RIYADH: A coalition of nations working for a resolution of Sudan’s civil war urged the warring parties on Saturday to expand access to famine-stricken areas by humanitarian relief efforts.
In a joint statement, the ALPS Group said that while humanitarian operations “are now moving across conflict lines from Port of Sudan through Shendi to Khartoum,” wider access must be ensured for relief efforts “to reach the heartland of the crisis and contain the famine.”
“(T)his expansion of humanitarian access, while a positive sign, remains insufficient to meet both the needs of the people and to ensure the efficient delivery of the hundreds of thousands of tons of additional humanitarian assistance being mobilized for the people of Sudan,” the statement said.
The ALPS Group — which stands for Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan — issued the statement after a virtual meeting on September 19, during which it received “sobering updates” on the ground situation in the troubled North African nation.
The group includes Saudi Arabia, the US, Switzerland, the UAE, Egypt, the African Union, and the United Nations.
During the virtual meeting, the group noted an instance of “catastrophic malnutrition” at the Zamzam camp near the town of El-Fasher in North Darfur state.
Already the largest refugee camp in Sudan with half a million people, Zamzam has become more crowded after war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to relief agencies.
Recent reports have said the famine-stricken camp is now facing the risk of infectious diseases after it was hit by floods.
The humanitarian group Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, had earlier warned last May about an "acute disaster on a catastrophic scale" happening in the camp as the number of evacuees continued to swell.
In its statement on Saturday, the ALPS Group welcomed the full opening by the government of General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan of the Kassala and Dongola airports for the UN’s World Food Program’s Humanitarian Air Service.
However, it said, RSF and Sudan Armed Forces should also ensure “unhindered and safe access” for relief efforts along the Khartoum route and other routes, including from Khartoum to El Obeid and to Kosti, from Kassala to Wad Medani and beyond.
The ALPS Group also urged the paramilitary RSF “to refrain from any attacks targeting civilians” and the Sudan Armed Forces “to stop its widespread aerial bombardments.”
It also called on international partners to join efforts to reach immediate humanitarian pauses to the fighting to allow humanitarian access and corridors for civilians most in need.
US urges citizens to leave Lebanon while commercial options available
WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Saturday urged Americans in Lebanon to leave the country while commercial options remain available, as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah flares.
“Due to the unpredictable nature of ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and recent explosions throughout Lebanon, including Beirut, the US Embassy urges US citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available,” the State Department said in an updated advisory.
“At this time, commercial flights are available, but at reduced capacity. If the security situation worsens, commercial options to depart may become unavailable,” it added.
In late July, the United States raised its travel advisory for Lebanon to its highest “do not travel” classification, after a strike on southern Beirut killed a top Hezbollah commander.
Israel on Friday struck southern Beirut again, saying this time it had killed the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and several other commanders.
The Lebanese health ministry said 37 people were killed in the strike, which followed sabotage attacks earlier in the week on pagers and two-way radios used by Hezbollah, which killed dozens and wounded thousands.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has blamed Israel, which has not commented.
Hezbollah fighters have traded cross-border fire with Israel for nearly a year in stated support of Palestinian ally Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
But the exchanges have escalated in recent weeks, as Israel turns its attention to its northern border after significantly weakening Hamas.
The US State Department reiterated Saturday that Americans should “immediately” leave southern Lebanon, as well as areas near the Syrian border and refugee settlements.
Israelis rally to pressure government on hostage release
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accused by critics of stalling in truce negotiations and prolonging the war
TEL AVIV: Thousands of Israelis again took to the streets of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv on Saturday to press for a Gaza truce deal that could free dozens of hostages.
Weekly rallies in Tel Aviv throughout the war, which was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack, have become more critical of the Israeli government since the military announced earlier this month that six dead captives had been recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accused by critics of stalling in truce negotiations and prolonging the war to appease far-right coalition partners, has said Hamas militants “executed” the six hostages by shooting them in the back of the head.
Netanyahu has also blamed Hamas leaders for rejecting terms of a possible truce and hostage release deal, while himself facing calls from Israeli critics to make concessions to secure the return of 97 people still held in Gaza, including 33 the military says are dead.
Actor Lior Ashkenazi told the crowd in Tel Aviv on Saturday that “there will be no redemption” if the government allows the Israeli captives to be “abandoned to murderers and rapists for coalition considerations.”
“No one will agree to live under a broken leadership. Cry out, beloved land, for your leaders abandon you.”
As in past weeks, relatives of captives addressed the crowd.
Eli Elbag, father of hostage Liri Elbag, said addressing his daughter: “It’s been a year since I last kissed you, a year since I last laughed with you.”
“We will continue to fight to bring everyone home,” said the father.
Saturday’s protest unfolded in the shadow of increasing cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
Shahar Mor, nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder, said he feared the fight against Hezbollah would again distract leaders from the plight of the hostages.
“Their goal is to focus on the illusion of ‘absolute victory’ that is always just around the corner,” said Mor.
But like during successive phases of intense fighting in Gaza over nearly a year of war, the “corner... always shifts according to specific interests,” he said.
“Yesterday it was Rafah (in southern Gaza), tomorrow it will be Beirut.”
The October 7 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Palestinians militants seized 251 hostages that day, scores of whom were released during a one-week truce in November.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,391 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has acknowledged the figures as reliable.
